Singapore HDB’s new Lease Buyback Scheme to benefit 25,000 elderly households

Singapore HDB’s new Lease Buyback Scheme to benefit 25,000 elderly households

By Wong Siew Ying,
SINGAPORE : Some 25,000 households, or 70 per cent, of two- and three-room flat owners will benefit from HDB’s new Lease Buyback Scheme.

Under this scheme, the Housing Board will buy back the tail end of the flat lease from elderly owners, to help them unlock the value from their flat.

Details were announced by National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in his speech

Low income elderly households can sign up for the Lease Buyback Scheme to monetise their flat to meet retirement needs.

Under the scheme, those above 62-years-old can sell the tail end of their flat’s lease back to the HDB at market rate.

The household can continue to stay in their flat, which will be left with a 30-year lease.

Mr Mah said: “In addition to the housing equity that is unlocked by this purchase of the tail end of the lease, HDB will provide a S$10,000 subsidy. Out of this S$10,000 subsidy, S$5,000 will be given to the household as an upfront lump sum payment. The remainder will then be used to purchase a CPF LIFE Plan to provide the owner with a steady stream of income for life.”

For instance, a household living in a three-room flat with a 70-year lease valued at S$200,000 can expect to pocket S$97,000.

The sum will include S$87,000 for 40 years of their flat’s lease, after factoring in depreciation and a S$10,000 government subsidy.

Of this, S$92,000 go to the purchase of the CPF LIFE Plan and S$5,000 will be paid out to the household in cash.

Using the same illustration, the CPF LIFE Plan will yield a monthly payout of between S$460 and S$490 for the household for the rest of their life.

However, the annuity terms will vary depending on the age and gender of the owners.

And should the elderly outlive the 30-year lease, HDB says they can choose to have it extended.

Appropriate housing arrangement will also be made on a case-by-case basis for those who cannot pay for the lease extension.

Those who opt for the Lease Buyback Scheme will not be allowed to sell the flat in the resale market, nor sublet the entire flat.

However, they may return their lease prematurely to the HDB under special circumstances, such as the relocation of the owner to an institutional home.

The HDB will then reimburse the residual value of the lease.

To prevent abuse of the scheme, HDB will impose a pro-rated forfeit of the S$10,000 subsidy, if the flat is returned within the first five years.

The Scheme will be introduced next year.

Only elderly households in 3-room or smaller flat, who earns up to S$3,000 a month are eligible.

And they must not have enjoyed more than one housing subsidy or owned a larger flat or private residential property previously.

To be eligible, the household must also have lived in the flat for at least five years and not have any outstanding loan on their flat exceeding S$5,000.

Mr Mah says HDB will assess if the scheme should be extended to 4-room flat households. - CNA/ch
Source : Channel NewsAsia  - 29 Feb 2008

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Singapore Mah Bow Tan says acquisition of flat is “absolute last resort”

Singapore Mah Bow Tan says acquisition of flat is “absolute last resort”

By Julia Ng,
 

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan assured Singaporeans in Parliament on Thursday that compulsory acquisition of a HDB flat is the “absolute last resort” – a serious decision carried out only after all other measures have been exhausted.

Mr Mah said this when he gave what he called “the full picture of Madam Judy Mitchell” – whose plight was highlighted by her MP Ong Kian Min of Tampines GRC earlier this week.

The five-room flat Judy lives in with her mother and her daughter, an air-stewardess, is her third flat.

Mr Mah said she had bought and sold two flats previously, making profits of about S$190,000. She has also enjoyed three concessionary loans.

But Judy had difficulties servicing the loan for her third flat soon after buying it.

HDB has allowed her to defer her mortgage payments or pay only half the instalment amount on four occasions for six months each, over a period of two years.

But Mr Mah said Judy did not make any attempts to find a long-term solution.

He said: “She was not receptive to HDB’s suggestions to downgrade or include her working daughter to help to service the housing loan. As a result, her outstanding loan has increased beyond the original loan. They have to downgrade, while they can still obtain enough sales proceeds to afford a small flat.

“I would like to urge Mr Ong to persuade the family to please do the right thing quickly. If they cannot get a bank loan, I will ask HDB to consider providing a non-concessionary HDB loan for them.”
- CNA/so

Source : Channel NewsAsia  - 29 Feb 2008

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More office space with new extension in Singapore Marina Bay

More office space with new extension in Singapore Marina Bay

By Wong Siew Ying,  

  
SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said in Parliament on Thursday that the government has set aside a new growth area in Marina Bay. This will yield an estimated 2.8 million sqm of gross floor area for office use.

Marina Bay – a centrepiece of efforts to ensure there is sufficient office space to meet future needs – will be a seamless extension of the current Central Business District at Raffles Place.

At 85 hectares, the new growth area will be more than twice the size of Raffles Place, which now spans 31 hectares.

About 40 percent of the available office space has already been taken up by developments such as One Raffles Quay, the Marina Bay Financial Centre and white sites at Marina View.

Mr Mah said: “To give you an idea of its eventual scale, the amount of space that will be generated within the area located immediately adjacent to the existing financial district at Raffles Place and Shenton Way will be equivalent to two Canary Wharfs in London.

“It will provide as much Grade A office space as Hong Kong’s Central. URA will make available more sites for development in this area over the next five to six years, in line with market demand.”

More land will also be released around Tanjong Pagar, as well as redevelopment plans for the Ophir and Rochor area to transform it into a vibrant office cluster.

Mr Mah said the office market will remain tight until 2009. But some 1.4 million sqm of office space should become available in 2010 and beyond.

To ease the supply crunch, the government will continue to release land for transitional office sites.

The office developments at Scotts and Anthony Roads – two parcels on short-term leases of 15 years – could be completed by mid-2009.

These transitional office land parcels will join three others awarded previously at Scotts Road, Tampines Avenue 5 and Mountbatten Road.
- CNA/so
Source : Channel NewsAsia  - 29 Feb 2008

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Singapore CDL able to weather uncertainty for next 3 yrs

Singapore CDL able to weather uncertainty for next 3 yrs

It posts full-year profit of $725m; bottom line would be $2.8b if fair value gains included
By KALPANA RASHIWALA

THE top brass at City Developments Ltd (CDL) yesterday said the property group has ‘the financial muscle to weather the current period of uncertainty even for the next three years’, after announcing a record full-year net profit of $725 million.
 
Attractive asset: City Square Mall 
The group sold about $6.2 billion of residential projects in 2006 and 2007, which means it has locked in, to a very large extent, handsome profits which have yet to be booked.

These substantial and better-than-expected profits will continue to be recognised progressively based on construction progress. ‘Some will come in 2008, 2009, perhaps also into 2010,’ CDL managing director Kwek Leng Joo said at the group’s results briefing yesterday.

‘Even if the market recovery should take place a little bit later than expected, I think we’ll be OK,’ he added.

In short, the group can afford to delay launches of new residential projects if necessary to ride out the current weak sentiment.

As a major office landlord, CDL will also benefit from the office crunch as many of its key tenant leases are up for renewal between now and 2011 - a period when office supply is expected to be limited.

In the hospitality sector, CDL’s hotel arm Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has a string of hotels with a wide geographical spread - which should act as ‘an insurance against a downturn in any particular geographical area’, CDL executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng said.

The group also has many other attractive assets such as City Square Mall and St Regis Hotel in Singapore which it could potentially sell, boosting its bottom line.

As well, CDL has a healthy balance sheet, with relatively low net gearing of 48 per cent.

CDL posted a 106 per cent jump in group net profit for the year ended Dec 31, to a record $725 million. However, had it adopted the revaluation policy of its peers, its bottom line would have surged to $2.84 billion after factoring in about $2.1 billion of fair value gains on investment properties.

The $2.84 billion net earnings for the year ended Dec 31 would pip the $2.76 billion net profit posted by fellow property giant CapitaLand for the same period.

CDL’s fourth-quarter net profit rose about 71 per cent year-on-year to $235 million, with revenue inching up 3.7 per cent to $765.7 million.

The group has also yet to recognise any profits for One Shenton, The Solitaire, Cliveden at Grange and Wilkie Studio, as these residential projects are still in the initial stage of construction. These projects alone account for $1.7 billion in sales value.

Even if the group defers or paces its launches, it will proceed with the construction of its projects where construction cost had been favourably secured earlier, CDL said.

It may also consider building selected projects when the construction cost stabilises at a reasonable level. It expects that when sentiment improves and the market begins to recover, there will be pent-up demand which the group will be in a position to meet.

The group is planning to launch in the first half of this year some 427 private homes in four Singapore projects - Shelford Suites, a condo on the former Lock Cho Apartments site at Thomson Road, The Quayside Isle @ Sentosa Cove and a condo at Pasir Ris.

In its results statement, CDL also said that it has an investment commitment in the private fund Real Estate Capital Asia Partners, which acquired Jungceylon complex at Phuket’s Patong Beach. This is a 1.5 million sq ft mall which opened for business recently and is next to the Millennium Resort Patong Phuket.

CDL also reckons it has ‘ample time’ to review its strategy for its office portfolio, given improving office rental yields.

Its options include retaining its office properties at a low cost base, monetising the portfolio and/or extracting maximum value by selling its assets wholesale or individually. Another option would be to spin off an office real estate investment trust.

The group has all along been following its conservative policy of stating investment properties at cost less accumulated depreciation and impairment losses. On adoption of Financial Reporting Standard FRS 40, the group continues to state these assets at cost less accumulated depreciation and impairment losses.

Most other Singapore- listed property groups state investment properties at fair value, as permitted by FRS 40.

CDL’s full-year revenue for the year ended Dec 31, 2007, rose 22 per cent to $3.1 billion, also a record for the group.

The group also gave a segmental breakdown of profit before tax, including share of after-tax profit of associates and jointly controlled entities, which showed that pre-tax from property development more than doubled from $225.8 million in 2006 to $506.3 million in 2007.

Pre-tax profit from hotel operations fell from $396.6 million in 2006 to $285.4 million in 2007, mainly because the 2006 figure had included a $150.9 million one-off gain from the sale of long leasehold interests in four Singapore hotels to CDL Hospitality Trusts.

Profit before tax from rental properties more than quadrupled from $30 million in 2006 to $133.6 million in 2007.

CDL is proposing a final dividend of 7.5 cents per share as well as a special final dividend of 12.5 cents per share. Both payouts are tax exempt.
Source : Business Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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CDL boss punctures popular wisdom - Singapore

CDL boss punctures popular wisdom - Singapore

Mid-market may not shine and high-end is unlikely to collapse, he says
By KALPANA RASHIWALA

(SINGAPORE) City Developments Ltd (CDL) executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng yesterday turned a popular market view of the Singapore residential sector on its head.
 
Different view: Mr Kwek Leng Beng (right) with his brother Leng Joo, MD of City Developments. The group’s full-year profit doubled to a record $725m last year 
Many have whispered that the high-end residential segment is in danger of being hardest hit by the sub-prime crisis while the mid-tier and mass-market segments will be better shielded. Not true, says Mr Kwek.

‘The high-end is not going to collapse like what some (in the market) are saying. The mid-end is not going to be fantastic, like what is commonly believed, because of the subprime situation and Singaporeans’ wait-and-see attitude.

‘The mass market will do well, but selectively. It’s not going to be what you’ve seen before…people queuing up,’ Mr Kwek said.

The Housing & Development Board also provides a credible alternative to mass-market private housing, Mr Kwek said at a media and analysts’ briefing to announce CDL’s results for the year ended Dec 31, 2007. The group’s full-year net profit doubled to $725 million - a record.
‘Sentiment is more important than supply and demand. The higher the prices, the more people buy.’
 
- Mr Kwek Leng Beng 
 
 
 
 
Mr Kwek also acknowledged that the current market environment was not conducive to setting up real estate investment trusts (Reits). He would look into opportunities to buy into existing Reits, but only if they were being offered for sale together with their respective Reit management companies, which earn handsome fees.

On the high-end residential sector, Mr Kwek noted that it is supported not only by wealthy local investors with holding power, but also by well-heeled foreigners. ‘Super-rich investors from Russia, Middle East and even hedge-fund managers have yet to come into Singapore in a big way.

‘With Singapore developing into a global city and placed into the limelight, it can be a very attractive place to invest for these well-heeled clienteles, as seen in London,’ CDL said in its results statement.

The next big wave for the Singapore property market will come when the two integrated resorts are operating successfully. ‘It will be a different Singapore altogether. Singapore is a hub. I’ve been harping on this. Nobody believed me until last year,’ said Mr Kwek.

He also sought to debunk another popular view, that the deferred payment scheme which was removed by the authorities in October last year, had only served to fuel property speculation. ‘Deferred payment is not only an instrument for speculation. It is an instrument to enable buyers of new (residential) units to dispose of their existing units at a gradual pace, instead of being forced to sell their existing homes,’ he said.

Noting that sentiment in the local property market has become subdued because of the sub-prime issue, Mr Kwek said: ‘Sentiment is more important than supply and demand. The higher the prices, the more people buy.’

He also recommended buying real estate as a hedge against inflation, especially given the current low housing loan rate environment, adding in the same breath that he was not trying to talk up the market - drawing laughter from the audience.

But Mr Kwek also had some advice on affordability. ‘You must be able to pay your instalment, that is most important. If you can’t pay the instalment, and you hope (the property value) will go up tomorrow, then you are speculating.’

Referring to the squabbles among owners in estates with en bloc sales, Mr Kwek said: ‘People are fighting, because they are jealous somebody sold higher. Who can say this is the peak? You should be happy if you have a good gain, don’t fight. That’s my advice.’

He estimates that about 50 per cent of those who’ve sold their homes through en bloc sales have not yet bought replacement homes, even if they may want to downgrade.
Source : Business Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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So easy for winner of $1.3b govt outsourcing deal-Singapore

So easy for winner of $1.3b govt outsourcing deal-Singapore

EDS-led team clinches contract that could save govt $500m over 8 years
By AMIT ROY CHOUDHURY

(SINGAPORE) The government yesterday ended the suspense over its mega outsourcing deal and announced that the One Meridian consortium, led by IT services company EDS International, has won the eight-year contract to manage the public sector’s front-end computer network comprising around 60,000 computers.
The $1.3 billion, eight-year tender, called Standard Operating Environment (SOE) - and renamed SOEasy (Public Sector) - was awarded some three years after the idea was first announced.

One Meridian’s proposal was the best and that’s why it emerged the winner, Lim Hup Seng, deputy secretary (performance) of the Ministry of Finance, noted yesterday.

The One Meridian consortium comprises, apart from EDS, Singapore Computer Systems (SCS), Frontline Technologies, Fuji Xerox, Avanade, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Microsoft and Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel).

Its victory startled some industry watchers who had installed two other consortia as favourites to bag the SOE deal.

One Team, led by NCS and including IBM, and iN’spire, led by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and including local firm ST Electronics, were widely thought to be in the best position to win. This was mainly on account of the fact that HP and IBM are two of the biggest IT companies in the world. BT had reported earlier this week that some internal differences had cropped up in the One Team consortium.
 
Mr Lim said that the initiative would bring about $500 million in cost savings for the government over the lifetime of the project.

He added that the tender would run for eight years and the first 17 government agencies with full SOE implementation will be up and running by July 1, 2009. Full implementation would be by 2010.

Once deployed the SOE would serve 60,000 public officers and would cover 74 government agencies with offices in more than 800 locations.

The SOE contract excludes the Ministry of Defence, polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education as well as all schools under the Ministry of Education.

The race to clinch the deal - NexGenea, comprising Japanese giant NEC and US-based Computer Science Corporation, was the other player in the fray - was closely watched by the IT industry globally.

This is because for the first time the front-end computer network, across different departments and ministries of a government, is being outsourced to an outside vendor. If successful, SOE could trigger copycat implementations across the world, according to industry watchers.

Mr Lim pointed out that SOE was just the start of the government’s efforts to outsource its front-end IT needs.

One initiative that is already in the planning stage is the 100,000-seat Ministry of Education project for all the schools under it. Preliminary evaluation on this has started.

Pauline Tan, senior director, government chief information office, and the SOE programme director, said the contract will consolidate infocomm services into a single environment which will allow government agencies to achieve greater efficiency in infocomm usage and cost savings.

‘This involves harmonising desktop, messaging and network environments across all government agencies,’ she said.

She added that agencies can then fully utilise and benefit from integrated infocomm services and allocate resources optimally, resulting in operational efficiency that will bring about the $500 million cost savings to the government over the eight-year period of the contract.

‘This translates to an average of 28 per cent over current infocomm expenditure for equivalent services,’ she said.

Stephen Yeo, EDS’ South-east Asia executive director, noted that the One Meridian consortium represents ‘a comprehensive, leading-edge approach that will help create an agile work environment across the entire breadth of the Singapore government’.

Mr Yeo also noted that the project is economically viable. ‘If we didn’t think so, we wouldn’t be on this … and I think to the government’s credit, it knows that this has to be economically viable for whoever is going to win.’
Source : Business Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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Property players sweat over lending squeeze - Singapore

Property players sweat over lending squeeze - Singapore

Banks batten down hatches amid global turmoil and as big deals suck liquidity
By KALPANA RASHIWALA AND SIOW LI SEN

(SINGAPORE) The squeeze is on. Banks have tightened financing for property investment deals, which include big transactions like sales of office blocks and development sites. This, in turn, may keep some buyers from participating in the market, industry players have told BT.
 
‘There are a couple of large deals such as the integrated resorts which have soaked up a fair bit of liquidity.’
 
- Tan Teck Long, 
DBS Bank managing director, corporate and investment banking 
 
 
 
It’s also taking longer to wrap up property sales deals these days as securing funding becomes more of an issue - and this could be a drag on investment sales.

Bankers cite two main causes for the tightening. The turmoil in the global financial market has led to increased awareness of risks all round, and several mega transactions in the past 12 months here have left less liquidity available for others.

Says Tan Teck Long, DBS Bank managing director, corporate and investment banking: ‘There are a couple of large deals such as the integrated resorts (IRs) which have soaked up a fair bit of liquidity.’

Yesterday, Las Vegas Sands Corp announced the completion of its $5.25 billion loan syndication for the Marina Bay Sands IR, the largest deal of its kind here.

Brad Nelson, global head of commercial real estate, Standard Chartered Bank, agrees that the big deals had been sucking liquidity out of the market. ‘Banks only have a certain amount of capital base,’ he points out.
 
Banks’ exposure to property-related loans is capped by law at 35 per cent of their total loans, to keep risks from the industry in check. This does not include mortgages for owner-occupied properties.

Meanwhile, banks have become more cautious and are giving smaller loans relative to a property’s valuation than, say, 12 months ago. This serves to provide them with a greater buffer in the event of a fall in property values given the weaker sentiment in the Singapore property market today.

Jones Lang LaSalle regional director and head of investments Lui Seng Fatt says that about a year ago, banks may have given loans of up to 75 per cent of valuation for income-producing assets like office blocks. Today, the figure may be closer to 60-65 per cent.

Things are even harder for relatively unseasoned, smaller players buying residential development sites. They face greater scrutiny these days before banks give them loans, BT understands.

‘Financing for real estate projects has definitely tightened, especially since last quarter. This is essentially because of tighter liquidity brought about by limited appetite in the capital markets, due to current market developments,’ says Paul Kwee, Citigroup Singapore corporate bank director and head of real estate.

Lending amounts are more conservative now and covenants tighter, he says.

And despite the decline in Singapore dollar interest rates, the margins that are added to the floating interest rate reference are wider today, observes Mr Kwee. Margins are wider by 50-100 basis points now compared to last year, say bankers. Property sources say that while big established developers can still secure financing for purchases of development sites with relative ease, things are less rosy for smaller players.

Maybank head of business banking Lee Hong Khim acknowledges that his bank hesitates to finance new players whose core business is not in property development.

Mr Lee adds that Maybank is ‘more selective in the projects we finance; the location of the project is an important consideration as well’.

Giving his take, Citi’s Mr Kwee says: ‘Smaller players may find it harder because they have fewer financing options available to them as compared to the big boys who may also be able to tap the convertible bond or Sing-dollar bond market, for instance.’

But Mr Nelson of Stanchart says that ‘when liquidity is tight, lenders will normally take the position of supporting their existing relationships . . . regardless of whether they are SME (small and medium enterprise) or wholesale customers’.

Another outcome of banks becoming more cautious in evaluating loan applications is that it’s taking longer to complete property investment sales deals, says JLL’s Mr Lui.

The investment head of another major property consultancy group feels that the tighter financing environment could change the profile of institutional property buyers. ‘We may see greater participation from core funds, which assume lower risk, lower returns, and lower debt, and less participation from opportunity funds, which assume higher risks, higher returns and higher debt.’

Market watchers point to an extreme recent example, when UK-based New Star International Property Fund made a pure-cash (zero debt) acquisition of One Phillip Street, an office block in the Raffles Place area, for $99.02 million.

Funds that need to assume higher leverage to achieve their investment returns may find it difficult to buy property assets in Singapore - and their numbers may dwindle.
Source : Business Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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Singapore URA launches 2 more temp office sites in Newton

Singapore URA launches 2 more temp office sites in Newton 

Analysts see good demand just like for a nearby plot launched earlier

By Ong Bi Hui 
 
TWO more transitional office sites have been launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in a move to help ease some of the pressure on space.
The adjacent sites - parcel A is 8,682.8 sq m in size and parcel B is 9,037.9 sq m - are near the Newton MRT station, between Scotts Road and Anthony Road.

The sites can accommodate developments of up to four storeys that can be built within a year.

Transitional office sites, a relatively new concept, were introduced as a quick fix to the lack of space in the Central Business District (CBD).

They have 15-year leases, significantly less than the usual 99-year leases for commercial buildings.

The response has been mixed. A plot launched by the URA in Aljunied recently flopped, with all bids rejected as being too low.
The URA believes the Newton sites will fare better.

‘Based on market feedback, there is still demand for transitional office sites in the city centre,’ it said.

Property experts also expect a more enthusiastic response.

Mr Nicholas Mak, Knight Frank’s head of research and consultancy, said the prime location near the CBD and Newton MRT would draw bidders.

And the sites being adjacent means a developer could combine the land.

‘There is a potential for amalgamation to create bigger floor space,’ added Mr Mak, who estimated that the sites could sell for around $100 to $130 per sq ft (psf).

This values the parcels from $14 million to $19 million each.

Mr Mak felt the Aljunied site was ‘too close to the red-light district of Geylang’.

For the two latest plots, the industry experts interviewed expect a level of response similar to the Scotts Spazio site, which is across the road and was eagerly received by developers.

KOP Capital is developing the site, which cost $37 million, with partners Hwa Hong Group and Dubai Investment Group.

Insurer Prudential will lease the four-storey building for 14 years, paying $6.50 psf a month. The company should move in by September.

However, some experts believe that transitional office sites will not be commercially viable given their brief tenure. Tenders for the two Newton sites close on April 24 for parcel A and April 30 for parcel B.

Source : Straits Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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CDL boss prepared to delay Singapore launches in subdued market

CDL boss prepared to delay Singapore launches in subdued market 

Some projects can be held off till 2009, he says, as full-year gain swells to $725m

By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter 
THE property market may have stalled for now, but City Developments (CDL) executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng is not too worried.
He said that if necessary, he can hold off launches of new developments until next year.

‘Rather than launch today when the market is subdued, I would rather start construction on some projects first’ and launch them when demand picks up, Mr Kwek said yesterday.

‘If today there are not many buyers, this means that pent-up demand is building up, which can be very powerful.’

CDL plans to launch more than 400 units in four projects by June, assuming market conditions do not worsen.

It will release the 77 units at Shelford Suites in Bukit Timah, which is said to have been ready for launch for some time.

LATENT DEMAND
‘If today there are not many buyers, this means that pent-up demand is building up, which can be very powerful.’
MR KWEK, on why he would rather begin construction on some projects, and launch them later on when demand picked up
 
The group also intends to launch 100 units of the 228-unit Quayside Isle @ Sentosa Cove, and another 100 at a new development on the former Lock Cho Apartments in Thomson Road, which will have 336 units.

The fourth project is a joint venture at Pasir Ris Drive 1. About 150 of its 724 units are targeted for release by June.

Even if the launches end up delayed, CDL may first start construction on Shelford Suites and the Thomson Road project, said Mr Kwek.

This could also bring in more upfront cash for the group when it does sell the homes. Buyers have to pay 30 per cent in cash after foundation work is done, compared with only 20 per cent if no construction has started.

Mr Kwek’s comments yesterday came on the back of a sterling year for CDL last year.

The developer, Singapore’s second-largest, said full-year net profit more than doubled to a record $725 million. Revenue rose 22 per cent to $3.11 billion.

Earnings per share more than doubled to 78.3 cents for the year. Net asset value per share rose to $5.72 as at Dec 31, from $5.21 a year ago.

Last year, CDL booked profits from projects such as St Regis Residences, Tribeca and The Sail @ Marina Bay.

But it has yet to recognise any profits from One Shenton, The Solitaire, Cliveden at Grange and Wilkie Studio - which account for about $1.7 billion of sales. In all, the group sold 1,655 homes last year for a record $3.4 billion.

CDL’s hotel and office properties are also enjoying high occupancy rates in the buoyant market. Its offices are almost 96 per cent occupied, compared with a market average of 92 per cent.

The group has also not adopted the same approach to revaluing its properties as some of its competitors, which have reported huge revaluation gains. With these gains, its profit would have surged to $2.8 billion, it said.

The group is recommending a final cash dividend, tax-exempt, of 20 cents a share in total.
 

Source : Straits Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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$5.25b credit facility for Singapore Marina Bay Sands

$5.25b credit facility for Singapore Marina Bay Sands 
 
DESPITE volatile global credit markets, another giant syndicated loan deal has been completed in Singapore.
The deal is a $5.25 billion credit facility to finance the construction of the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort (IR).

It follows Genting International’s success earlier this month in lining up funding of $4.19 billion for much of the building of its Sentosa IR.

Las Vegas Sands Corp’s senior vice-president for finance, Mr Scott Henry, was in town yesterday for the announcement of the Marina Bay Sands deal, allowing him to meet executives from the participating banks.

More than 30 banks, including Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered Bank, Lehman Brothers Finance Asia and the three local banks, are involved as coordinators of the financing.

The credit facility is the largest private Singapore dollar-denominated financing ever completed.

Mr Henry said the completion of the credit facility underscores both the attractiveness of the Singapore market, and the enthusiasm and confidence the financial community has in the success of the IR.

Participating banks said the response to the credit facility had been encouraging, especially in the light of the turmoil in credit markets.

‘This demonstrates the participating banks’ confidence in Singapore and the Marina Bay Sands project,’ said Mr Elbert Pattijn, the head of specialised corporate and investment banking at DBS Group Holdings.

Source : Straits Times  - 29 Feb 2008

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